Rockflanders

Mansfield will make his money from the hotel rooms like any other conference centre. Most National conference centres are technically loss leaders however the Earlscourt Olympia group in London according to estimates published by the British government is responsible for 2bn spend for every 2oom of their turnover.
Your argument on risk and reward appears correct although it does not stand up in practice as there are to my knowledge and according to the article above, 3 property developers competing for the national conference centre competition who would not be doing it if it wasnt going to make money. I would expect that this would include government subsidy in the short term however if the benefit to the Irish economy was going to be a multiple of 10 of the capital input surely that would be a benefit to all? Again, the vast majority of this spend will come from a market that Mansfield will have no access to. Dublin is one of the most desirable destinations in surveys of the large international conference organisers but they would not go to a shed in the suburbs.

The Frankfurt Messe by the way is competing against the Saalbau and the Jahrhunderthalle Frankfurt.

The target market will be very different in citywest. He really will not be a competitive threat to whichever one is built in the docklands. At least he doesnt have kevin Roche turning a sugar bowl on it’s side.

Any planning/commercial/tourist/architectural guidelines you can find worth a pinch say that a conferece centre to be of value to the country must be situated in a city centre location at a transport hub.
This is truly a shame.

Those who have been following the Conference Centre deliberations (article in todays paper attached) they will know that citywest is not shortlisted as a possible site for the National Conference Centre. Spencer Dock is shortlisted but as previously mentioned in this thread – the design is awful, it is surrounded by apartments and offices, it is not on the waterfront.
Another group has a submission in for the racetrack in Leapordstown which one would only have to fondly remember the Baileys Icon to judge. (Those empty golden buses shooting up the Stillorgan Dual Carriageway!) The remaining submission which I personally prefer is down beside the Point Depot, has large surrounding space for ancillary non-commercial development (national theatre, national stadium, national welly throwing arena), has the C1 Luas extension to the door, footbridges etc. to the southside, Port Tunnel to the airport and beyond and Dublin Port for cruise ships and passenger ferries.

Whether one will actually be built this time (I stand to be corrected but have not Treasury won this competition twice before?) or a decision reached before 2006 remains to be seen but Dublin would be the preferred destination of hundreds of well heeled groups of conferencees for whom the destination city is just as important as the actual talks.

Minister blames red tape for delayed conference centre plan
Arthur Beesley, Political Reporter
26/10/2004

The Government will be unable to select a group to build the national conference centre until late next summer at the earliest due to “tortuous” red tape in the Department of Finance, the Minister for Tourism has indicated.

Mr O’Donoghue wanted a preferred bidder chosen before Christmas, but he has conceded that the deadline will not be met because of the bureaucracy involved in the public-private partnership funding model being used by the Government.

In remarks to the Dáil last week that were not reported at the time, the Minister said the process should be changed.

“As far as my experience goes, it is tortuous in the extreme,” he said. “It is tortuous for the officials involved, the Minister and those who are interested in becoming involved in construction. I hope that one of these days someone will see sense and change the guidelines governing this process. I have rarely come across as much red tape or bureaucracy in all my days travelling.”

The groups shortlisted last July by the Government are said to be frustrated at the delays in the process, which was initiated last January. Those on the list include the long-time bidder Treasury Holdings, which wants to build the centre at Spencer Dock in central Dublin.

The Anna Livia Consortium, led by Bennett Construction, wants to build the centre at a site owned by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority near the Point Theatre. The group involving the construction firm Michael McNamara and the Leopardstown Club Consortium wants to build it on land owned by Horse Racing Ireland adjacent to the Carrickmines end of the Leopardstown racecourse.

Mr O’Donoghue said in the Dáil that the public-private partnership was “necessarily complex” and was being carried out in accordance with interim guidelines developed by the Department of Finance.

The preparation of detailed project documentation was demanding and time-consuming.

While it would not be possible to select a preferred bidder before the end of the year, Mr O’Donoghue said the objective now was to to ensure that invitations to tender were issued to the three pre-qualified candidates before Christmas.

looks like it got planning. 64 metre tower and all.
A disgrace to build buildings that height if youask me.

Hmmm… Bridge?